The crucial role of ICT and AV within organizations

The role of ICT and AV within organizations


Communicating is a crucial element in the process of working and learning. This implies in a clear way that all facilities enabling communication need to function extremely well. Communication is already pretty difficult so anything to avoid miscommunication can make a big difference. ICT and AV (Audiovisual) systems support the communication process and enable groups of individuals working together to make better and/or faster decisions. This can generate a competitive advantage which again shows the value of ICT and AV systems in this era


When looking at the current global economic situation it is important to get most out of your ICT and AV environment against the lowest possible costs for that level of quality required. Lowering the costs too much might undermine a smooth operation and can compromise the minimum level of quality needed.

Although ICT budgets are under pressure as well there is no doubt about the importance of the CIO within an enterprise environment. According to Forrester Research the CIO’s key to success is choosing a small number of metrics that are relevant to the business and have the most impact on business outcomes. The five metrics that meet the criteria for relevance and impact are

• Investment alignment to business strategy,
• Business value of IT investments,
• IT budget balance,
• Service level excellence,
• Operational excellence.
  

These five metrics should form the core of an ICT performance scorecard and in order to perform well on all items on the scorecard the CIO should understand the business needs and deliver on this with well managed services (and costs).

However, when looking at the AV environment within an organization it appears that this is perceived and valued totally different. Often there is no strong alignment with the business strategies nor an AV performance scorecard and the responsibilities for managing the operational and service level excellence is much lower on the ladder. Pretty often this is just a contract management role where knowledge of the AV concepts doesn’t seem to be a prerequisite. This in general leads to an ad-hoc approach instead of a well structured AV performance scorecard approach

Structures to support

When looking at AV as stated earlier support is often done by the AV supplier and is reactive in nature while IT support is often organized according to the best practices as described within the ITIL framework where we can use the ITIL v3 core volumes

• Service Strategy focuses on the identification of market opportunities for which services could be developed in order to meet a requirement on the part of internal or external customers. The output is a strategy for the design, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of the service as an organizational capability and a strategic asset. Key areas of this volume are Service Portfolio Management and Financial Management.


• Service Design focuses on the activities that take place in order to develop the strategy into a design document which addresses all aspects of the proposed service, as well as the processes intended to support it. Key areas of this volume are Availability Management, Capacity Management, Continuity Management and Security Management.


• Service Transition focuses on the implementation of the output of the service design activities and the creation of a production service or modification of an existing service. There is an area of overlap between Service Transition and Service Operation. Key areas of this volume are Change Management, Release Management, Configuration Management and Service Knowledge Management.


• Service Operation focuses on the activities required to operate the services and maintain their functionality as defined in the Service Level Agreements with the customers. Key areas of this volume are Incident Management, Problem Management and Request Fulfillment. A new process added to this area is Event Management, which is concerned with normal and exception condition events. Events have been defined into three categories:
  o Informational events, which are logged
  o Warning events, also called alerts, where an event exceeds a specified threshold
  o Critical events, which typically will lead to the generation of Incidents


• Continual Service Improvement focuses on the ability to deliver continual improvement to the quality of the services that the ICT organization delivers to the business. Key areas of this volume are Service Reporting, Service Measurement and Service Level Management
  

In general these core volumes can be applied to the management of an AV infrastructure as well and this would lead to lower support costs while having an AV infrastructure that fits the needs better and operates more stable due to the pro-active nature of the ITIL processes. Within AV support some of these processes are there already (but not always as mature as within the ICT domain) but other in general are absent like incident management or life cycle management. This would strongly plead for using the ITIL best practices in AV management as well (and possibly even using the same set of management tools where possible since the IT department may already have e.g. an incident management registration tool).

Blending both worlds even further.

When looking at the services both parties provide we used to have some clear distinction. For example the IT department delivered services like messaging and collaboration or network connectivity (wired, wireless and mobile) while from an AV point of view services like (video)conferencing or presentation/meeting rooms were offered.

When looking at the convergence that is taking place right now we see transitions where projectors get network connected, traditional (video)conferencing/telepresence systems integrating with webcams and meeting room reservation systems being available from the IT messaging system.

As a result the boundaries between the services delivered by the IT department and AV management are getting fuzzy. When looking at the ICT messaging and collaboration service this in general includes platforms like exchange, Office Communication Server and Sharepoint.
Traditionally meeting room reservation systems are managed by the AV team, as well as (video)conferencing or digital signage/narrow casting.

With all convergence going on we see digital signage products based on sharepoint, meeting room reservation systems integrating with outlook/exchange and (video)conferencing solutions working nicely together with office communication server.

This fundamentally reshapes the traditional services landscape and it would make sense to have the AV components managed by the same team that already manages the ICT infrastructure. There are some good reasons to do it this way around and not the other:

• The ICT department most likely already has the support tools and processes in place
• Since AV components will be more and more ICT components (projectors on the network, video over IP, etc.) ICT needs to integrate this in their network anyhow and thus will have a strong say in the choices made
• AV components and their networked interactivity are becoming more and more complex so it would make sense to have the most technical group taking care of them
  

Next steps

The AV industry should ensure the devices they design and built will support standards like SNMP so they will be easier to manage without the need for a layer in between as is needed today.

On the other hand enterprises should think about a clear strategy on their AV environment and how to integrate this with the ICT environment. This obviously can be a long term strategy to avoid disinvestments by replacing components that are still in the middle or beginning of their economic lifecycle (unless replacement would deliver a cost benefit that is bigger than the disinvestment). This can be done according to the IT’s AVision model as defined by MII that will lead you through the steps necessary for your organization (steps in maturity are outlined below, note this is not the complete model)

Last but not least, the CIO should prepare for taking control of the AV components as well. This means he needs to make sure that the AV specific technology is understood so he can keep delivering on the expectations

Conclusion

By integrating your AV support and ICT support in 1 support model (preferably ITIL) and using 1 set of tools the costs of managing the integrated environment will go down while the support moves from reactive to proactive. This obvious will result in a situation where communication can migrate to more effective communication

Amberalert - Great showcase of PC based narrow casting and what you can do with it

Hi

Just got this press announcement (sorry it's in Dutch but there is English information available via http://www.amberalertnederland.nl/Default.aspx - check for English website in right upper corner). Personally I think this is a great showcase of the technology (great digital signage application with multi platform distribution options (PC, mobile phone, digital signage screens etc). However what I like most about this particular showcase (besides it's free) is the social relevant use of technology on helping the government with tracking back missing children and child abduction in a simple and easy to use way. You get targeted alerts (based on postal code) on your pc (IM, popup or screensaver), mobile phone or in a community area on the digital signage screens already available

PERSBERICHT
Dit is een gezamenlijk persbericht van het Korps landelijke politiediensten, Netpresenter en het Openbaar Ministerie.
Den Haag, 11 november 2008

Landelijk AMBER Alert-systeem vergroot vindkans vermiste of ontvoerde kinderen
Heel Nederland wordt via schermen, e-mail, SMS en instant messaging gewaarschuwd bij een vermissing van een kind waarvan vermoed wordt dat diens leven of gezondheid gevaar loopt. Minister van Justitie Hirsch Ballin heeft vandaag in Nieuwspoort het startsein gegeven voor AMBER Alert Nederland. Doel is bij urgente kindervermissingszaken gebruik te maken van de ogen en oren van de burger en zodoende snel het kind te kunnen opsporen. Meedoen is eenvoudig: daarvoor hoeft alleen de software te worden gedownload.

De Nederlandse politie gaat gebruik maken van een nieuw waarschuwingssysteem bij urgente kindervermissingszaken: AMBER Alert (www.amberalertnederland.nl ). Met dit gezamenlijk initiatief van softwarebedrijf Netpresenter en de Nederlandse politie, kan heel Nederland straks direct van kindervermissingen op de hoogte worden gebracht door middel van pop-ups op PC's, beeldkranten, screensavers, e-mail, SMS, Instant messenger, newsfeeds en website Alerts (Flash). Doel is gebruik te maken van de oren en ogen van de burger waarmee de politie kan worden geholpen bij haar zoektocht naar het vermiste kind.

"De hulp van Nederlandse burgers en organisaties is doorslaggevend voor het succes van het systeem. Ik roep dan ook iedereen op om AMBER Alert tot een echte levensredder te maken - download de software zoals ik, of meldt u bijvoorbeeld aan voor een SMS- of e-mail alert," aldus minister Hirsch Ballin van Justitie nadat hij het startsein voor AMBER Alert had gegeven.
AMBER Alerts zullen alleen worden uitgestuurd bij urgente kindervermissingszaken. De beslissing óf er een AMBER Alert zal worden uitgestuurd is aan de politie. Het Korps landelijke politiediensten (Klpd) toetst of een vermissing aan de criteria voldoet. Zo moet het kind onder de 18 jaar zijn, moet er direct gevaar bestaan voor het leven van het kind of moet gevreesd worden voor ernstig letsel. Naar verwachting zal er tussen de vijf en tien maal per jaar een AMBER Alert worden uitgestuurd. De Nederlandse politie is volledig verantwoordelijk voor de inhoud van alle AMBER Alerts.

Hoe werkt het? Op http://www.amberalertnederland.nl/ kunt u software downloaden waarmee via uw scherm kort aandacht wordt gevraagd voor een urgente kindervermissingszaak. Door ook op uw PC- of plasmascherm elektronische posters met informatie over vermiste kinderen te laten zien, helpt u het bereik van deze berichten vergroten. En dat is van levensbelang want hoe meer mensen de opsporingsposters zien, hoe groter de kans dat een kind (snel) teruggevonden wordt. U kunt zich ook aanmelden voor AMBER Alert e-mails, SMS- en IM-berichten of voor een Flash-bericht op uw website.

AMBER Alert Nederland werkt naar voorbeeld van het Amerikaanse AMBER Alert Plan dat al vele kinderlevens heeft gered. Er zullen geen reclameboodschappen worden vertoond en de privacy van de gebruiker is gewaarborgd. De software voor AMBER Alert Nederland is ontwikkeld door Netpresenter in samenwerking met de Nederlandse politie.

Communicatiespecialist Netpresenter stelt het systeem kosteloos ter beschikking van het Klpd.

Big winners are Obama and Technology

It has without any doubt been the most impressive US elections for a long time (maybe even ever). I guess most people watched the elections on TV and used the internet to keep up to date. This has lead to a huge amount of traffic to the CNN website. 276 millions of page views where there are “only” 35 millions normally. Not that bad. There have been more on 9/11, but the circumstances were definitely more comfortable yesterday. Also the other non-election related websites had many less page views than normally.

When looking at these figures we can assume many people went to the CNN site and I guess many others watched their live election broadcast and here we have seen some great stuff. Besides the perceptive pixel multi touch screen they already had for a while when talking about the elections in the last few weeks (a nice clip about this is shown here but this one is much more fun I think)

Besides this way of presenting CNN is also doing interviews. But instead of the split screen or window TV viewers might typically see during live remote interviews, the Obama spokesperson will be projected as a three-dimensional hologram, making it appear as if he or she is in the Manhattan studio with Blitzer. The network plans to conduct similar holographic interviews with representatives from the McCain campaign in Phoenix.

"Everyone is doing something virtual this election year," says CNN Senior Vice President David Bohrman, the guy who pushed the technology. But Bohrman believes CNN is going where no network has gone before by employing Hollywood-style effects. "Virtual elements in a real set look so much better than a real person in a virtual set," he says.

CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There'll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.

And CNN is not the only one bringing in new high tech. Let’s look at what the other did:

• Fox News has built three new HD studios for Tuesday night's broadcast so it can make better use of the additional TV real estate with updated county results, comparative numbers from previous elections and poll-closing times. A giant wall with touch-screen technology will provide electoral map results.
  
  "We've been planning for this night for two years," says Jay Wallace, vice president of news editorial product at Fox News.
  
  
• ABC's digital maps make their debut, letting correspondents look at up-to-the-minute votes by county, and compare votes as far back as 1960. Also, a double ticker line at the bottom of TV screens will display current popular and electoral totals for Barack Obama and John McCain. Beneath that will be results for Senate and gubernatorial races, says ABC News Creative Director Hal Aronow-Theil. For HD viewers, ABC is providing more information on the left margin of the TV screen.
  
  
• NBC spent the past year designing two studios that make the most of visual technology. One features intricate exit-polling information that digitally appears on a wall. The other studio lets political director Chuck Todd analyze presidential results by region, state and county. "We finally figured a way around using pie charts," jokes Phil Alongi, executive producer of election night for NBC News and its cable channel, MSNBC.
  
  NBC, too, plans to make use of a bigger HD screen size with detailed results from the presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races. And it has partnered with social-networking giant MySpace on Decision08, an online section that includes video, news feeds and blogs from NBC News.
  
  
• CBS News will analyze national and state exit-poll data, using state-of-the-art technology to display vote-counting and demographic data.
  Touch-screen technology will allow anchor Katie Couric to drill down on state and county results for all races, including propositions. "It is very fast technology using real-time data," says Frank Governale, vice president of operations for CBS News.
  
  
• Comedy Central, a go-to cable channel for political news for many young people, is teaming with a social-networking site. The TV home of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert is using the services of Meebo to host chat rooms for users to share their political views.
  Among CNN's other innovations on election night are a virtual Capitol Building used to illustrate the changing balance of power in Congress. But the most promising election winner is the hologram. "Either this is an evolution in the way we do live interviews on television," Bohrman says, "or it's a nice try."
  

Would this be the first step in creating the showcases to bring this into our daily life a bit more? At least one thing is clear. Besides Obama, Touch screen technology is the big winner